Improvement in electric telegraphs



C. F. JOHNSON.

ELEGTBIG TELEGRAPH.

Patented May 16. 18.48.

flzznwrew UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEQ CHARLES F. JOHNSON, OF, OWEGO, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT lN- ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 5,568, dated May 16, 1848.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. J OHNSON, of Owego, in the county of Tioga, State of New York, haveiuvented certain new and useful 1mprovements in Electric Telegraphs and I do hereby declare that the following is a full'and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, to'wit:

I employ in operating iny telegraph a galvanic battery, a single galvanic circuit with the means of breaking and closing said. circuit at pleasure,'and an electro-magnet; but as I claim nothing new as respects any of these parts, and they have been long well-known, it is unnecessary particularly to describe them.

I form signs in making communications by dropping, as hereinafter particularly described, small metallic ballssay one-twelfth of an inch in diameter, or common shot of that size-upon an endless belt moving with a uniformvelocity. The balls dropped upon the belt, upon either side ofa longitudinal line, (the belt being in motion,) are, as dropped in succession, distributed upon it and spaced off in groups of one or more balls, thus forming the following signs:

0 O O0 OO O O 0. O0 0 OO 000 O O O 4 O O O 0 0 OO 0 O0 OO O OO O OO O 0 000 O O 00 O O 000 0000 O O O I thus form thirty signs by the use of four balls and under. For additional signs, as may be required, I employ five balls. With the signs thus formed any communication can be made, and the communication can be read off directly from the signs as they appear upon the endless belt, such length being given to the belt as may seem most advisable-as, say, six feet; but in order to the more convenient reading off, and to obtain permanent signs, I propose. to take 01? impressions from the balls thus forming signs by passing the belt with the balls upon it under a roller with an elastic periphery and carrying a strip of paper. The roller with the paper being pressed down upon the belt, the balls, as they pass under it'in succession, make impressions or indentations on the paper, and thus fac-similes of the signs formed by the-balls upon the belt are taken off on thepaper. These indentations on the paper, or copies of the signs formed by the balls, may be obtained more directly, and without the intervention of. the belt, by dropping the balls directly in contact with the paper as it passes perpendicularly downward, carried between two rollers moving with a uniform velocity, the only difference being thatin this case theindentation is taken oft from the ball immediately on its being dropped and before the other balls forming with the first a sign are all dropped and, as this may be regarded as the most simple and convenient mode of operating, L'now proceed to describe the form of apparatus proper for it, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and making part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a plan of the apparatus, showing the parts in their places; Fig. 2, elevation from side A of the plan; Fig. 3, section of the elevating-wheel; Fig. 4, detached plan of the chute Fig. 5, section of chute and escapement in place, seen from side B ofplan, Fig. 1.

The same letters in all the figures refer to the same parts.

a a is an electro-magnet, of the usual form and construction, placed in a galvanic circuit extended between the two stations communicating, with the means at the station making the'communication of breaking and closing the circuit at pleasure 5 b b, the armature; c c, the ends of the wire forming part of the circuit, shown as detached.

Attached to the armature is what I call an escapem ent, composed of an axis, at d, on which it turns, and of two arms extending beyond the armature. (Seen most clearly in the plan, Fig. l, as b 'g e and I) f.) These arms are separated, say, about one-fourth of an inch at the points f and g, as seen in the plan, Fig. l, and one of them, I) f, is at the pointf about one-twelfth of an inch above the other at the point 9, as seen most clearly in the section of the chute and escapcment, Fig. 5. These arms are of wire, flattened at the points f and g. The upper one, I) f, is bent atright angles at f, as seen in the plan, Fig. 1. The lower one, b, g, is continued about an inch beyond the pointy to c, where it has a diagonal lip turned downward. (Seen most clearly in Fig. 5 ate.) This escapementis connected with an inclined channel of brass, h h, Figs. 1 and 2, in which are the balls, and constitute with it what I call the dropping apparatus. This channel is terminated at its lower-end, W, in a tube aboutone-fourth of an inch in length and about one-tenth of an inch in diameter. (Seen most clearly in Fig. 5 at W.) The halls pass by gravity along the channel It h to its lowest point, and thence into the short tube.

The lower arm of the escapement, when the apparatus is at rest, is directly under the end of the tube, and the most advanced ball rests' upon it, as seen at g, Fig. 5. The upper arm of the escapement I) f hasits bent end, which is brought toan edge directly opposite'the tubeh Fig. 5, and there is a transverse opening in the tube to admit this bent end whenever the escapement-arm is moved laterally toward it.

A light spring, t, Figs. 1 and 2, acts upon the escapement and removes the armature attached to the escapement-a-rms about one-sixteenth of an inch from the electro-magnet, and holds it at rest against a stop, with the arms of the escapement in positions relative to the tube, as described-that is to say, with the arm I) 9 directly under the tube and the arm I) f, with its bent endjust enteringthe transverse opening in the tube.

The operation of the apparatus will be as follows: When the magnet is put in action by closing the circuit the armature .will be attracted to it and will carry the lower arm, I) g, of the escapement laterallyfrom under the tube h, causing the ball resting upon itto drop. At the same time the bent end of the upper arm, I) f of the escapement will be thrown into the tube R and will arrest the descent of the ball next above the one dropped, it being understood that the balls in the tube and channel touch one another or follow each other in succession. When the circuit is broken and the. magnet ceases to act the springi carries back the armature and-escapement-arms to their for mer position. The ball that was arrested by the bent arm of the escapement, as described, will immediately fall upon the lower arm, I; g, of the escapement, thus occupying the position of the ball that was dropped, all the balls in the tube or inclined channel at the same time advancing a space equal to the diameter of one of the balls. All the parts will thus be brought into positions ready for dropping another ball on again closing the circuit. The balls, when dropped, fall upon an inclined chute, m 0,Figs. land 2, and seen separately in plan, Fig. 4, and also seen in section and in connection with the escapement in Fig. 5. This chute is of brass, about half of an inch in width and one and a half inch in length, with sides one-fourth of an inch high. It has atits lower end two orifices or short tubes, at a, Figs. 1 and 4, asshown atm, Figs.2 and 5. These tubes are about one-tenth of an inch indialneter and one-fourth of an inch long. A partition, 9, Figs. 1 and 4, extends about half an inch up the chute between the two orifices or tubes, and reaches from the orifices nearly to the diagonal lip e, Figs. 1 and 5,0n the end of the lower and longer arm of the escapement The chute has a slight lateral inclination toward the side of the orifice m, Fig. 1, so that the ball, when dropped,will naturally pass along that side of the chuteto the orifice m and pass through it. In order to make it pass, to the other orifice, n, it must be diverted from its natural course, and this is done by the diago nal lip 0, Fig. 5, attached to the lower arm of the escapement. This lip reaches down tojust above the bottom'ofthe chute, as seen at c, Fig. 5, and is diagonal to its direction, as seen at c, Fig. 1.

When the armature and escapement are in their position at rest, held by the spring t against the stop, the'distance of this lip from the side m'of the chuteis such as to allow the ball to pass freely-along that side to the orifice an but. when the armature is brought up to the magnet to drop a ball this lip .will also be brought up to the side m of the chute, and if it be kept there it will interrupt the line of motion of the ball and divert it to the opposite side of the chute, or to the side a of the partition n, Fig. 4, and it will pass to the orifice a. Now,"as the interval of time required for the ball, when dropped, to arrive at the point in the chute opposite the diagonal lip e is greater than that required by the spring i, Fig. 2, to throw back the arm with the diagonal lip when the ciruit is broken instantly after being closed, the consequence is that when the ball is dropped by an instantaneous action of the magnet-that is, it the circuit be closed and instan tly broken-ethe ball dropped will pass to the orifice m but if the action of the magnet be prolonged by keeping the circuit closed a short interval of time,it will pass to the orifice n.

Having thus the means of dropping balls and causing them to drop at pleasure through either of the two orifices or tubes, at or a, they may be dropped and distributed upon an endless belt moving just below the orifices with a uniform velocity, thus forming the signs before described.

In order to take ofi' impressions from the balls upon paper as they are dropped, two roll an inchin diameter-perpendicularl y below the orifices in the chute. One of these rollers, s, is covered with an elastic cloth or buckskin would require little or no groove.

or it may be made of cork, inwhich case it These rollers carry between them a narrow strip of paper, y 3 Fig. 2, (not shown in Fig. 1,) which they draw ofi from a roll by their motion and deliver out. When a ball is dropped and passes out of the orifices in the chute it falls directly in contact with the paper and in the grooves in the roller 1', and iscarried through between the rollers by-theirmotion, indenting the paper on a line corresponding with the orifice through which the ball dropped. It iseasy to see how the indentations thus made on the paper, corresponding, as they will, with the balls dropped, will be copies of the signs before mentioned.

The balls, as they pass from between the two rollers, by their motion fall into an inclined channel of wood, tu, Figs. 1 and 2, about three inches long, placed below the rollers and parallel to their axes. The halls then pass by gravity along this channel, and are delivered from it into the buckets of the elevating-wheel W, Figs. 1 and 2, upon the same'axis' with the roller '8. This wheel is shown in section,Fi'g. 3. They are raised by this wheel, and deliv: ered from itat its most elevated-point into the inclined channel :0, Figs. 1 and 2, placed parallel to and close to the side of the wheel. From this channel they pass .to the .channel h h, with which the former is connected, as seen at h, Fig. 1. They arethus returned tothe droppin'g apparatus, and asu'ecession of them is constantly kept up, their number being such as always to afford a supply at the droppingpoint h Uniform motion may be given to the apparatusin any convenient way by power applied to the pulley 2, Figs. 1 and 3, upon the axis of the elevating-wheel.

'If an endless belt is used, it is-best to make its'outer surface of some rough substance, as

velvet, that the balls, when dropped upon it,

may have no tendency to change their places 0n iii; 1

I have also contemplatedemploying two circuits to form signs for telegraphic purposes by droppingballs of. difierents sizes or different colors, and made numerous experimentsto test the operation, as also the employing the deflective power of the current upon a needle, using a single circuit for the purpose of dropping balls of two descriptions, and thus form-v described, for telegraphic purposes.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 3d day of April, in the year 1848. CHAS. F. JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

STEPHEN DEXTER, F. J. FAY. 

